Sniffing potatoes
Written by: adekun on 25 July, 2008 4:09 pm - Filed under: blog — 1 Comment »
I’ve just whittled away the afternoon smelling potatoes. The spuds have been hanging up in the garage waiting to turn green. Despite checking them when digging them up, a few had turned putrid. The smell was horrid; hot cat shit.
I am anxious about storing them without anywhere cool to store them. The humidity is a real problem. The spuds were spaced out between layers of newspaper in a few boxes. Hopefully the orderly three layers will make checking them easier.
Kabocha
Written by: adekun on 22 July, 2008 4:02 pm - Filed under: vegetables — No Comments »
Kabocha a few days old
These are a variety of mini kabocha; both the fruit and leaves are smaller than the usual. From the two plants only three squashes are good. The majority of the vines are now yellowing. This is in part to my idea of growing some of them up poles to make better use of space. Besides what I think was a pollination problem, many of those that did start to bear fruit soon died. I shall certainly aim to try again; in the meantime there is some new foliage to gaze at.
Kabocha harvested
July main crop harvest
Written by: adekun on 17 July, 2008 4:10 pm - Filed under: garden — 2 Comments »
It is so humid at the moment. As a result, a paltry target of harvesting one row of potatoes was set. Day four and mission accomplished, just has the rain arrives. I’m happy with the yield. Despite giving several bags away prior, the spuds created a nice mound in the wheelbarrow. Two of the rows had the haulms cut to two or three in an attempt to see if the average size of the tubers would increase. While there isn’t an astonishing difference overall I think it worked. Jacket potatoes once the skins harden.
First watermelon
Written by: adekun on 3 July, 2008 4:10 pm - Filed under: garden — 5 Comments »
Japanese watermelons tend to range from expensive upwards. The prefecture is renowned for its crop and production methods. Warned off previously, because of the sprawling vines; this year with a bit more space, a young plant was transferred amongst the kabocha. Not looking to win awards, I’m content just to grow a couple and felt rather excited to spot the first swelling. After taking a photo, dry grass was laid on top of the ground as bedding. It should prevent an excess of weeds and keep the melons clean.
Okayish onions
Written by: adekun on 30 June, 2008 6:53 am - Filed under: blog — 1 Comment »
Over the past month the small and sometimes misshapen onions have been harvested. Early on, those that had bolted were taken a used in curries and soup. There were quite a few of these; I think the cold may have stressed them. Kento heaved several out in the manner rather like in the story of the Giant Turnip. A little out of character Ritsue, spent the majority of two days weeding. 
With the onions gone the garden had the appearance of a chemist’s dimple tray. I practised tying a few red onions up, leaving me with purple fingers and what looked like a bunch of giant grapes.
Raining cucumbers
Written by: adekun on 20 June, 2008 9:32 pm - Filed under: blog — 2 Comments »
Kento has had quite a temperature over the past two days; just as it has become really humid. It’s been quite difficult through day and night as he has been uncomfortable. The rainy season arrived but it still remains horribly sticky. Once the rain has passed we can look forward to some drier but super hot weather. Outside I collected the first cucumber with a better feeling Kento.
Profusion of weeds
Written by: adekun on 14 June, 2008 4:29 pm - Filed under: blog — 2 Comments »
I decided to evacuate one legume bed as a tide of weeds enveloped. The evacuees perked up after a nights rest. It leaves a question, what to grow. Getting some tubers in to break up the soil would be nice, that however will have to wait a season. Elsewhere, weeds of choking the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and aubergines. The compost is giving the seeds that should have been sterilized a good start. I don’t really want to yank all of them out as the ground is already drying out, but even a few remainders seem to rapidly multiply. I should have thought about using the bags to collect some free mulch before laying a path on them.
Sweet potatoes got planted yesterday; two rows of beniazuma and three rows of beniaka (popularly known as kintoki). Having just reclaimed the land, thought they would be ideal as the ground is fairly poor. Little time was spent making shallow rows and inserting the slips at an angle somewhere between 30° and 45°.
